Mass spectrometers have been shown to be particularly useful for analysis of liquid or gaseous samples, and mass spectrometry (“MS”) can be coupled with gas chromatography (“GC”) or liquid chromatography (“LC”) for analysis of substances having a wide range of polarities and molecular weights in samples obtained from a wide range of sources.
Mass spectrometers employing atmospheric pressure ionization (“API”) techniques can be particularly useful for obtaining mass spectra from liquid samples, and MS employing such ion sources are frequently used in conjunction with high performance liquid chromatography (“HPLC”), and combined HPLC/MS systems are commonly used for analysis of polar and ionic substances, including bimolecular species. In API techniques a liquid sample containing a mobile phase (e.g., solvent) and analytes is introduced into an ionization chamber and there converted to a charged dispersion or aerosol of fine droplets from which ions emerge as the liquid evaporates and the droplets shrink in size. The conversion of liquid to spray or aerosol can be accomplished by any of a variety of techniques. Evaporation of the liquid can be assisted, for example, by passing a flow of warm gas (“drying gas”) through the cloud of droplets.
Considerable interest has developed, particularly in the pharmaceuticals and medical diagnostics industries, in employing mass spectrometry to analyze large numbers of samples that contain only a few analytes of interest. Typically the sources of the samples are biological fluids such as urine or blood. Samples from such sources contain significant quantities of substances that are not of interest in the analysis, and sample treatment for removal of these substances makes up a significant proportion of the cost of such analyses. Accordingly, some effort has been directed toward reducing the extent of sample treatment prior to introducing the sample to mass spectrometry apparatus. In one approach, tandem mass spectrometry (“MS/MS”) has been used in an effort to reduce the need for sample preparation for simple target compound analysis. MS/MS systems are significantly more costly than MS systems. In another approach, described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,936,242, a laminar gas flow is established in a direction transverse to a gas flow axis within an analytical chamber, to separate ions in a complex mixture according to their mobility.